


Hair as Red as Blood

by TBCat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Child Neglect, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 12:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15949766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TBCat/pseuds/TBCat
Summary: Must be an Uzumaki.Uzumaki Naruto is born covered in blood, guts, and seal work that contains a massive demon.As he grows, Uzumaki Naruto learns what makes a spirit, a demon, and a monster. It is not his bloody red hair, though everyone and thing consistently assumes otherwise.





	Hair as Red as Blood

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a stream-of-consciousness about Naruto's childhood. Ostensibly, it started with the idea of what it would mean if Uzumaki Clan traits presented more predominantly in Naruto, but my writing rather got away from me.

Naruto is named Uzumaki; not Namikaze. 

He wails in his crib, and the orphanage workers shut the door to his isolated room. Babies should not be left alone, but the Kyuubi will, regretfully, be fine. Every hour the senior worker is sent to see to the Kyuubi’s basic physical needs. They change his diaper and put a cold bottle of formula in his hands. Since the attack the entire staff has been overworked. They cut corners where they can, and often forget certain duties. 

At three months the demon’s permanent ANBU guard capture three separate foreign-based assassination attempts. They die before they can release any useful information. More importantly, this attracts the Hokage’s attention. 

The orphanage suddenly has to adjust to a large budget increase and a worryingly large staff turnover. A permanent caretaker is carefully vetted and then assigned the exclusive duty of caring for the Kyuubi. 

She is kind.

She responds quickly and with warmth to the baby’s wails, and begins to bring in gifts for the Kyuubi’s room. It starts with a threadbare blanket embroidered with frogs. The blanket is clearly a donation bin item, but the newly crawling baby loves it. More accurately, the demon loves to chew the edges of the blanket into ragged shreds. The caretaker patiently sews the edges of blanket while she sits in the corner of the room and sings lullabies.

The demon crawls across hardwood floors unafraid of scrapes and bruises until it tires and returns to the lovely woman. Then, he curls up in her crossed legs and sleeps with dreams of blonde hair, shining bright like the sun itself. 

The demon figures out climbing next. It can’t get in or out of its locked room, but every morning when the kind lady visits the demon is already out of the crib. She laughs every time, and starts bringing old cardboard books for the demon to chew on. She brushes her hair back with a smile to match the demon’s gummy, baby grin. 

The demon takes his first steps on a Tuesday, as he rushes to the kind lady in the morning and falls into her arms. She is surprised and happy and stiff. “Ninja!” The demon says proudly. They are the only constant word in his stories. 

The next toy the lady brings is new. The demon has never seen it before, either. The demon shoves the plastic triangle in their mouth and enjoys the iron taste of their own gums. It always calms the angry whirling of the demon’s gut. 

The lady gently takes it from the demon with a kind smile and names the toy, “kunai”. She throws it, hard, at the wall, where the very tip of the plastic somehow digs into the solid wood. The demon stares gap mouthed before running after the toy and throwing it everywhere. The demon isn’t strong enough to get through the wall, and the rebounding plastic kunai frequently wacks the demon. The demon bares too sharp fangs and heals.

When the demon turns two, it lies in wait. The crib just barely fits when the demon curls up at night, but the numerous pillows and blankets the demon has started collected hide it well enough. When the lady comes in, the demon jumps from the edge of the crib just like a ninja from the stories. The lady screams and drops the metal in her hands, but she catches the demon. That's all it wanted; it hasn’t been touched since its hair got long enough for the demon to see it was the color red. 

The lady sets down the demon and picks the metal object back up. “Wazzat?” The demon asks.

The lady smiles and answers, “I’m going to cut your hair.”

The demon is happy to do whatever the lady wants, and she holds him facing outward in her lap. Then she unsheathes a real kunai, shining with fresh polish. The demon flinches when the oil drips on the skin at the back of his neck, and the lady suddenly tightens her grip on the hair she has gathered up in her raised hand. 

“Whyzit hurrt,” the demon whines. Then everything moves. 

The kunai is stabbed into the demon’s shoulder through the threadbare cloth of a hundred-times torn shirt, and it burns more than anything the demon knows. It screams as it realizes an animal faced spirit has snatched the lady and pinned her to the ground with a sword. Blood pools into the wood and puddles against the strands of the demon’s matching hair. A new animal steps out of shadows that aren’t there to stand over the demon. The demon extends a hand arched with glowing spirit claws and grabs the demon’s shoulder. It screams. The burn turns into ice and the demon feels its shoulder freeze and break and regrow new and be crushed like the wildflowers in the sidewalk on the street outside the demon’s window.

* * *

 

The demon smiles at the old man. Its room has been empty since the lady; five whole suns. The demon doesn’t want this new friend to leave him. More important, the demon doesn’t want to be alone, because then the animal faced spirits could come back. 

The demon has thought about every story it can remember, and it remembers that spirits are silly and mean and sometimes nice. The animal face spirits must be mean, but they are still silly if they only took the nice lady and not the demon. Maybe they were confused by its blood hair.

The demon has been very careful to lie on the floor each night so that the dried red stain and the demon’s prone body might trick the spirits. 

Now, the demon is not alone. The man smiles back just like the lady did, so the demon holds his arms out to be picked up and names him “Gramps!” After all, the demon knows that only grandparents, witches, or kings are old people, and a King would never visit the demon. 

Gramps smiles and picks up the demon easily. “Of course, Naruto,” he says. 

“Wazzat,” the demon asks as it reaches for the interesting looking hat Gramps is wearing. The demon needs something to bite. 

Gramps stops smiling, so the demon freezes. It doesn’t want to do anything wrong. “What is what,” Gramps asks after a pause that feels as long as it takes the demon to balance enough toys to climb and see out the small window of its room.

The demon tries to wiggle out of Gramps grip and tries to decide if Gramps would stop him from climbing to the window. “Wazz ‘Naruto’?” It finally asks. 

Gramps walks over and picks the demon up to see out the window. The demon doesn’t cry thinking about the lady doing the same thing. “You are Naruto. It is your name,” Gramps says. 

Naruto freezes and looks at Gramps with wide eyes. Names are a Story Only thing.

“Your name is Naruto Uzumaki,” Gramps says with a smile. Naruto squeezes Gramps with a hug. He doesn’t ask for a name in return; he knows better. He remembers the stories. Names are only given, never asked for or taken. 

After all, that’s how the spirits control people.

* * *

 

Naruto moves into a new building. Naruto’s building. 

He knows that its a new building because the street outside the window is different. In fact, Naruto can’t see any street outside of his window. Instead, Naruto sees the side of an old building and tightly shuttered windows at different parts of the alleyway. When Naruto stays up very, very late an old ratty cat sometimes strolls down the alleyway. The cat always looks up at Naruto’s peeking form with shining eyes and hisses defensively before bolting away. 

Naruto stops staying up late to see the cat. 

Naruto’s building is so big! Naruto’s building is big, and has more than one room, and Naruto is allowed into every single one! 

Naruto reaches and stretches, and then he can just catch the door knob that shuts the door to the room he wakes up in after he was moved. This bedroom has a crib with no walls, like a mini-bed, and the floor is all the color of plastic wood instead of stained red like Naruto’s hair. 

Outside of Naruto’s new room that belongs all to Naruto, Naruto finds a big, big room. The big room has a weird cushy chair that is stretched out like it was made for someone as fat as three or four regular people. Naruto jumps over the back of the cushy chair and shrieks in excitement as he bounces off the seat and crashes onto the floor. The rest of the room is empty, but Naruto sees another window that looks into the new alley.

There is a new door, too. This door looks big, and heavy, and special. Naruto thinks this is one of the “no-go” doors, because it has the same kind of shiny metal locks that kept Naruto from opening his old door. 

Instead, Naruto scampers into the dark corner of the big, big room to find a new section. 

Naruto’s building is big, big, big!

This room must be the fancy room. It has lots of shiny machines and decorations, and Naruto sees buttons with pictures of fire and turners with indecipherable numbers on them. Naruto presses everything he can and yowls when the big black box suddenly burns bright hot. 

Naruto messes with the buttons and turns the dials until the box stops burning his hand when Naruto presses his palm against it. 

In the far corner, Naruto sees a tall, white box. The box, Naruto’s tall white box in Naruto’s new building, is as big as three Naruto’s. The box has its own door, and no locks, at all!

Naruto opens the door, and that is when Naruto finds the food. 

Naruto loves his new building. Naruto loves his new, big building, that Naruto is allowed to explore as much of as he wants and constantly has food appearing for Naruto to eat whenever he wants. 

(Naruto loves his name, that all his, and is careful not to say it out loud. Naruto wants to give his name to a person, on purpose, to show that he is a friend and not an enemy. He grins behind long red hair in front of his mirror. He has his own bathroom! Though, Naruto still doesn’t get how to use the toilet.)

* * *

 

Gramps visits a lot. It makes Naruto so, very happy. Gramps never gives Naruto a name, but sometimes time and actions and trust can mean just as much. So, Gramps visits Naruto a lot, and Naruto is so, very happy. 

Gramps always tells Naruto something new, too, which is almost as exciting as a name. 

Gramps tells Naruto about ninjas. Gramps tells Naruto about the Village. Gramps tells Naruto about the Hokage. Gramps tells Naruto about books, reading, and school. 

Therefore, Naruto expects Gramps to open Naruto’s big “no-go” door and take him to school for the first time. Together, they have made a plan. Naruto will go to school. Naruto will become a ninja. Then, Naruto will be so strong that everyone will love him and Naruto can protect everyone from the spirits! (Though, Gramps likes to pretend the spirits don’t exist.)

Gramps doesn’t appear. The door stays closed. The sun gets high enough in the sky to shine into Naruto’s window through the alleyway, and Naruto’s stomach complains loudly. 

Naruto takes a break from waiting in front of the door to grab some food from the refrigerator. (Gramps taught Naruto all about the ‘Kitchen’!)

Then, Naruto decides that waiting isn’t doing anything. Besides, Gramps may have been distracted by all the amazing things in the outside world. Worse, Gramps may have been taking by the spirits. Either way, Naruto needs to get to ‘school’, if Naruto is ever going to earn a life outside of his building. Gramps was very clear that the school place was the best way to learn about the world; even better than stories!

So Naruto tries something he has never tried before. Naruto opens the “no-go” door. It is heavy and solid wood, but Naruto pushes against the smooth painted surface and it slides open. Then Naruto is looking out into a hallway. Naruto has never been out before, and his blood boils. Naruto guesses this must be what excitement feels like.

* * *

 

Naruto gets to school. The village people don’t want to help Naruto when he asks, but they probably think he might be a spirit. No one else that Naruto sees has red hair. Maybe that is why the spirits took the Lady but left Naruto alone; they thought Naruto was just another spirit. 

Naruto finds the school, and Naruto gets in trouble right away. Apparently school is only at certain times, the way the sun moves when it wants and the alley-cat only passes Naruto’s window late at night. 

The more time Naruto spends at school, the more he doesn’t know. Naruto doesn’t know what clothes he can or can’t wear. He doesn’t know how to talk to people. Naruto doesn’t know how to sit still, and write, and read, and follow a hundred other commands that the teacher never gave or taught. Naruto just doesn’t know, and the school pretends they are teaching but Naruto never feels like he is learning. 

That is okay, though, because Gramps still visits, and he promises that soon Naruto will be a ninja who doesn’t have to go to school. Ninjas just learn from special masters and go on special missions to save princesses and defeat demons. 

The leaves fall from trees, and Naruto is amazed by these new things he has never seen before. Even better, his teacher has stopped caring where Naruto is. As long as Naruto isn’t seen by the people of the village, Naruto can explore all day. 

Then Naruto shows up to school and no-one else is there. Naruto waits on the swing for the teacher, and they explain seasons, and time, and graduating. They explain grades, and they explain that Naruto has failed a test he was never given. 

Naruto plays it smarter next time. He starts copying the village people, just like a changeling from the stories. Naruto follows the classroom’s rhythms, because even though he never understands the teacher, Naruto is always able to find the patterns to any story real or pretend. 

When Naruto watches a shopkeeper charge an old widow double the fair price for eggs, unseen in the alleyways, Naruto remembers the stories. So Naruto hides some old eggs under the shelves of the shop, and soon the smell of sulfur drifts down several blocks. 

Naruto picks up speed after that. Naruto learns that the village hates him, but Naruto loves the village because they’re his. Naruto will become Hokage, and show the village he loves them, and then the village will love Naruto. 

In the meantime, Naruto avoids his schoolteacher. Instead, Naruto follows every alleyway of Konoha until he can outrun a spirit in minutes and find his cat twice in one night. Naruto leaves rotten eggs in the stores of rotten grocers, and repaints the houses of men having affairs, and when clients bruise the flower girls selling their bodies, Naruto marks them with glitter and smoke for the spirits. The spirits never seem to listen to Naruto, no matter how brightly he marks his target, or how tightly he trusses them up in rope. The flower girls at least give him kisses and fix his hair. 

Naruto and the flower girls never trade names, though. They both know better than that; the flower girls are some of the only reasonable people Naruto has found in Konoha.

* * *

 

Naruto likes sparring and weapons class. Mizuki is like every teacher before, and Naruto avoids his lectures on information that Naruto was never told. However, the other kids are let free during the outdoors classes, and Umino-sensei is in charge of supervising them during that time. Then, Naruto can try to beat sense into Sasuke, who knows but doesn’t understand. Naruto can explore the boundaries of the girls who want to be ninja but don’t even compare to the flower girls. Naruto can see how much ridiculousness Shikamaru is willing to sleep through before Choji wakes him to intervene with Naruto and Kiba. Umino-sensei always freezes up and avoids Naruto, or yells at him loudly. Naruto understands fear; his hair must make Naruto look like a spirit, and Naruto thinks that is scary, too. Naruto doesn’t mind yelling; that's how anyone that wants to be heard talks, and at least Umino-sensei always clearly explains what he wants. 

However, Umino-sensei also doesn’t understand why Naruto is always playing tricks and marking those who are bad. Even when Naruto tells Umino-sensei the old stories about tricking spirits as they eat ramen, or when Naruto tells Umino-sensei why he chooses each trick. Instead, Umino-sensei freezes up and avoids looking at Naruto, or starts loudly yelling. At least Umino-sensei always clearly explains what he wants.

* * *

 

Naruto is a demon. Naruto is a demon, but actually not; Naruto just has a demon living in his stomach and sharing his chakra. 

Naruto is a ninja, because Umino Iruka looked at Naruto and said this is a little boy not a demon, and Naruto’s heart sand and head cleared, and Naruto could almost ignore the turning in his gut and boiling in his blood. Because Naruto is a demon, but Naruto is not a demon. Either way, Naruto will be Hokage, and protect all his precious people, and make the village acknowledge him. 


End file.
